Before & After
by leah skywalker
Summary: Hermione’s in her last year at Hogwarts with the rest of her crew. The very person she was trying so hard to not remember suddenly comes back into the picture. With things going horribly wrong, and horrid flashbacks haunting her, can anything be right?


Before & After

**Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter nor any of its related titles or characters.**

_Chapter One: Trouble on the Book Front_

"Harry, I still don't understand how that comes to be!" Hermione said doubtfully, not really understanding what was technically right under her nose.

"Herm, it's simple. In Defense Against The Dark Arts, Lesson 4, which they happen to be reviewing at the moment there is no stopping Voldemort. He's this wacko mastermind of everything. He was good at academics back in his day, so he does probably have some prior knowledge of the Kaloportus spell." Harry said, deep in thought as he flipped through the pages of their Defense Against the Dark Arts text book.

"BUT HARRY, he can't know about this spell." Hermione said, suddenly a smile spreading across her face. "Look, at page 457."

Harry stopped flipping at that page, and began to read. Soon his eyes landed on what Hermione was talking about.

_The Kaloportus Spell has been around for the last 18 centuries, but no really knowledge or existence of it really came into being until 1957, when Drum Fliok became mayor of a small town named Xiola. During a simple debate, he accidentally put the Kaloportus spell on his opponent Of course the spell did what it was supposed to do, and it knocked his opponent out for a week. Because the debate could not continue, Mr. Fliok was able to declare victory, a dismay to the little town of Xiola…_

"1957 was" Harry started to say but was interrupted by a determined intelligent 17 year old girl who had apparently just solved their problem.

"7 years after Voldemort graduated from Hogwarts. Surely news of this story hit the papers, and most likely, The Prophet, but think, it was a town named Xiola. Does that ring a bell?"

"No, not really." Harry said, trying to get comfortable in one of the common room chairs. It was a Thursday night, actually, a Friday morning if you wanted to get technical, it was 3 am. Harry and Hermione were trying to find some time to find a special spell that might help defeat Voldemort. Ron wasn't with them, he absolutely refused to give up his sleep tonight, since there was a party tomorrow evening in Hogsmeade. He needed the energy after sitting through a double potions and a double transfiguration, both classes he hated to pay attention in.

"September 23rd, 1957, in Xiola, what happened?" Hermione said, suddenly a smiling spreading across her face.

"Xiola was burnt down by the death eaters!" Harry answered, now remembering things. "That means that the burning would have hit headline news, no one would have really cared about the spell at the moment."

"Exactly. So there you go Harry. There's your defense plot against old Voldemort. The Kaloportus Spell is genius."

Genius.

Genius.

Genius.

That word suddenly rang through her mind. She started to get a sick feeling in her stomach. A very sick one. After 3 years, she finally remembered **_him_**.

* * *

"_Jessica, what is your problem?" Alicia suddenly slapped her friend's arm at the lunch table._

_Jessica came to her senses. "Oh, sorry, just lost my train of thought there."_

_Alicia rolled her eyes and went back into conversation with Mike, Zach, and Julia._

"_I hate her. She's such a wack job. I mean come on, lets be serious here!" Mike said, laughing._

"_Not to mention that she has mental problems too. HOW THE HECK did she get number five wrong on the math test? It was practically a 3rd grade level question. Negative two squared. Come on! That shouldn't have even been on the test! It was just a gag questions. It's not even up to our level. We learned that stuff years ago." Zach said, continuing the laughter._

"_Oh totally. Everyone should have aced that test though. Shields says that she wasn't going to count it as a grade, she said it wasn't worth it. The test was too easy. Must have been way too hard for Sally though!" Jessica said._

"_Well, it all depends. You have your common idiots, your smart idiots-" Everyone coughed and looked at Jessica and Mike. "And then there's your mentally retarded idiots, which Sally so is." Zach answered, and by then, no one could control themselves. Jessica had tears coming out of her eyes, Mike's face was cherry red, and Alicia was laughing like there was no tomorrow. Zach, on the other hand, could barely breathe, laughter was taking it's control._

_Julia smacked her tray on the table, startling them all. _

"_Hey Juls, were have you been?" MIke asked, and Jessica saw how instantly he smiled, and his face got his normal color back, how he reached up to his spikey hair to make sure it wasn't out of proportion…_

"_Oh I was doing some extra credit for Dendra. Old man, made me do 6 pages!" Julia said, laughing._

"_Well I can see you survived." Mike said._

"_Yeah, unlike someone else who's sitting here." Julia said, then everyone turned to look at Zach._

"_That wasn't my fault!" Zach said defensively, everyone started to laugh._

_Zach had a bad history of skipping those "extra credit" sessions. More like detentions with Dendra during lunch. He had a racking history, up to 26 at the moment. He played football in the fall and baseball in the spring for Washak. He had curly dirty blond short hair, and was not your walking god of the abs, but he was funny, had a good personality, and that's what mattered. He had a very large family, because both his parents had kids, got divorced, remarried, and had more kids. He was your sweet guy, always trying to make a bad situation a good one._

_Julia was every girl's enemy. Pretty, funny, she could have straight A's (if she applied herself) and any guy. She played soccer for Washak, and was very good at it too. She stood at five feet one, with short brown hair. Best dressed every day, and always flirting with some hot guy. Julia was rich too. She had everything, literally. She was after this one guy, James, a sponsored skate border. He was sweet, always helping anyone. But of course, he had a girlfriend, Kiara. Kiara was a gymnast, who was currently the best in the country on her level. Julia despised Kiara, calling her cuss names every now and then. She had a small family, just one older sister, Angela, who was in college. _

_Jessica wasn't like Julia. She had long brown hair, curly, steel blue eyes, and had straight A+'s. She was very smart, had top grade in every class she took. Her skin was tan, that "just got back from the beach" kind of skin, only she hadn't gone to the beach or used any kind of self tanner in years. She always was second best dressed to Julia, very sporty in ways, but then she had a laid back coolness edge to her clothes. Whatever it was, she looked awesome in it. That is except for a bikini. She hated her body because she wasn't the athletic looking girl that she wanted to be. She played volleyball, and was a dancer. Ballet was her sanctuary, she could escape from everything for a measly 2 hours a week . She didn't have a boyfriend, and had her eye on one guy. The same guy she'd been laughing with for the last two years. She wasn't rich, just average, but that you couldn't tell. Her house was normal, her dad drove an expensive sports car, her mom a luxury SUV. Her brother was a jock, you get the point. She never had people over though, so a lot of people assumed she lived in some huge estate out on the rich end of Washak. Things academically always worked for her, but guys, she had problems with. Never had the one she wanted, and this time, the one she did want, he was single, hot, smart, but never seemed to be interested._

_Mike was the leader of their "clique" in a distinctive sort of way. He had jet black hair and even darker skin than Jessica. He had amazing dark brown eyes. Very smart too, he could top Jessica, but didn't bother to apply himself half the time, so he stuck with the usual straight A's. He didn't play soccer for Washak, no he was beyond that. He played for a premier state team, and was amazing. Top guy on the team. He lived for soccer. He was rich. His dad drove a Porsche, his mom, a Ferrari. HIS HOUSE was the private estate on the rich end of Washak. He never said anything about it though. But when the guy has $900 Adidas cleats, there's got to be a bit of a flaunt there. Needless to say, this guy did have it all. He stuck with his usual group of friends, but was so cool, everyone knew it too. His brother Dave was a miniature image of him, only very annoying, everyone learned after meeting him one day._

_Alicia was obsessed with science. It was weird, because she didn't get good grades in that class, nor any other. Her parents were divorced, and her older sister was a definite slut. You'd see her necking in the mall with her boyfriend, in the Subway line, right in front of everyone too. Her sister wore the skimpiest outfits, microscopic miniskirts were her favorite. Alicia would never admit it, but she was rich. Her mom had a huge apartment with marble floors about three miles from Mike's estate. Her dad had a new car every year practically, and lived in a mansion near Zach. Her dad had a velvet couch in his living room, well there were two, so what can I say? He took Alicia shopping every weekend, and she always dropped large amounts of cash on clothes she didn't even need. She was going out with Zach at the moment, and always bothered the crap out of Jessica when talking about him. It was, after all, all she talked about.

* * *

_

Hermione remembered her old life, the one she had to leave behind. It bothered her a lot, but this was the first time in 3 years that she had even thought about Mike. She hated her parents for making her leave her old life behind. She hated not being able to use her real name with all of her friends. Yes, she was Jessica. Yes, she did still like Mike in ways, and she missed everything she used to be. Picturing all that had gone on before she knew she was a witch, and had been enrolled into Hogwarts, a secret her parents kept until she was 11. The only thing was, Hermione had been going to the Washington Academy until she was 14, despite that she was at Hogwarts. The time turner McGonagall had given her allowed her to go back in time and be there for all of her classes at Washington Academy and Hogwarts as well. None of her friends knew that she was a witch, they just knew that she was taking double classes at another school. No one asked any questions about it. After she started Hogwarts, she never really spoke to or thought about Mike. Sometimes she would on a few occasions, but he soon became engulfed into his soccer, and they never got to see much of each other. Not that they were dating, it was just that wouldn't you still want to hang out with your best friend?

The two slowly pulled apart, and then Hermione just cut off her life at Washington Academy after she turned 14. Mike wouldn't remember her, nor would anyone else, so it didn't bother her. Victor Krum came and went, so did Ron she never went out with him, but adored him secretly for awhile. For now, all she had was her grades, her grades…

* * *

"HERMIONE!" Harry shouted at her, waving his hand in front of her face. She had looked daze for the last five minutes, but suddenly came to.

"Sorry. I'm kind of tired. I'm going to go to bed. I'll see you at breakfast." Hermione said rather too fast, picking up her books and things.

"You just got a letter though. Crookshanks left it on the couch while you were dazing out." Harry said, handing her an odd looking envelope. It looked like ones she used to send her letters in to her parents from Washington Academy! Then, she looked at the return address. It _was_ from Washington Academy. And that for sure wasn't the dean's handwriting, that handwriting looked very familiar. Almost too familiar.

"Thanks, I'll see you tomorrow." Hermione said, running up the stairs as if she was a track star. She dumped her things on her bed, and took the letter with her as she ran back out of her dormitory. Racing back down the stairs, she saw Harry, and then thinking how her heels would make an echo in the hallway, she quickly took them off, and put them by the fireplace. The fire was slowly dying. Harry saw her, but before he could say anything, she was out of the Gryffindor tower and headed for the lavatory, the out of order one that is. She needed privacy, and in the dead of night, also the near dawn in the morning, she knew she would not be getting sleep tonight. She crept into the lavatory, no one saw her the whole time.

Sitting on a toilet behind a locked door, she muttered "Lumos." At the sight of the light from the end of her wand, she tore open the envelope. Slowly she read the letter. She gasped and dropped it. _Oh my god, oh my god_ was all that was running through her head.

_Jessica/Hermione_

_Figured I wouldn't find out why you just left us all with no reason from the academy? I miss you, even though we slowly broke apart after my soccer. Sorry I never was able to talk to you, I just didn't have even a second to breathe, coach had us on these wacked up schedules. I wasn't even in any of your classes anymore. I know I should have made time to see you, god you'd think I'd hang out with my best friend right? But no, I was stupid, and got so absorbed at being the best at soccer, I forgot everything. I'm sorry if anything I had done upset you, I never meant to. I know you probably hate my guts now, and I'm probably the last person you'd expect a letter from, but I can't stand the thought that you're gone, and not coming back. Everyone agrees too. We didn't want you to leave, I blame myself for it. I should have been a better friend. I hope you haven't forgotten me, and that you'll keep in touch with me. I hope you accept my apology, and maybe someday you'll tell me about you being a witch, going to Hogwarts. Your parents told me, but I haven't told anyone else, I promise. I know I shouldn't have asked them to tell me the truth, but I just couldn't take the fact that you might have lied to us, turns out you didn't, you were really going to another school. I just, I dunno, had to know what happened to you and why you didn't keep in touch. Please forgive me, please write back._

_Mike_

**_He_ remembered her. **

**

* * *

**

**preview to chapter two-**

Hermione turned around and threw up in the toilet behind her. Her hands were so clammy she could barely even hold onto the letter and open the stall door, to get out.Mike wanted to talk to her. Mike, the guy who wouldn't have her, the guy she still cried at night about. Mike, the one Harry and Ron were not going to be pleased to find out about. Especially since she _never _talked about him before.

She made her way up to the common room, looked at the clock and noticed it was now 4:30 am. She figured she mine as well take a shower, she'd be getting up in about 15 minutes anyway.

Turning up the water so the dial faced high, she tried not to think about Mike. But that was all she could think about. Hermione couldn't come to the conclusion on why she was so **hurt** on getting this letter, but she was. Did Mike think that suddenly he was just going to walk back into her life and act all nice after what he did to her? After he refused to speak to her and flirted with all of her girl friends in front of her face? How he just ditched her too many times to count and just was able to act like she didn't exist, that is unless he made fun of her? How he somehow convinced everyone to not sit with her at lunch, so time after time she sat alone, not even eating, too hurt because all she could hear was his laughter a few tables away?

Because of Mike she became an outcast. All of her friends turned on her.They called her a liar and a mudblood, a name that they didn't even know the definition of. They only knew of the name and that it bothered her because she mentioned once that a guy at her school called her that multiple times and it really hurt.All she had was her grades. Everything else just wasn't "on the force" with her. Her "sword slowly became dull". She had no life at Washington Academy, and Mike still haunted her nightmares. But now, he was just too much of a burden to carry.

Hermione slammed her fist on the tile wall in the shower, and completely lost it.

* * *

**A/N: Hope you like it so far, I really wanted to make sure the first chapter was good! The next chappie will be up soon, but I'm extremely busy so it might take awhile. R & R por favor y gracias!**


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